1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic component mounting apparatus having a plurality of component feeding units aligned on a feeder base, the component feeding unit feeding an electronic component stored in a storage tape to a component pickup position, in which a suction nozzle picks the electronic component fed by the component feeding unit and mounts the electronic component on a printed board.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this kind of electronic component mounting apparatus, particularly in a high-speed gantry-type mounting device, since the component feeding units are fixed and not moved, there are rapidly increasing users employing the so-called splicing where storage tapes are connected to each other for supplying the components during automatic driving. A method of connecting storage tapes to each other is disclosed in the Japanese patent application publication No. hei 5-338618 and so on, for example, and a technology of facilitating the connection work is proposed.
However, in a case where the storage tapes are connected to each other with a connection tape when a shortage of electronic components occurs, the storage tapes at a connection portion with the connection tape, i.e., the storage tapes at a seam where the connection tape is attached are shifted due to the attached connection tape. Therefore, positions of a component storage portion and an electronic component stored therein are shifted relative to a position where the suction nozzle lowers to pick up the electronic component at the component feeding unit, thereby causing an error in picking a component and reduction in a pickup rate.
The invention is directed to an unfailing pickup operation of an electronic component from a component storage portion to prevent reduction in a pickup rate of electronic components even in the above case.